Mary’s Story: Roman Catholic Version I – Ch. 1 – Origins
Introduction
Some of you who have been reading my "Story of Mary" no doubt know that many think Joseph, unlike in the story you have been reading, was an older man who already had children. There is good reason to believe this might be the true story, as Joseph disappears early from the biblical narrative. Also, if Jesus was Mary's only son, it is fitting that, at his death, he entrusts her care to his beloved disciple John. His step-siblings doubtless had their own families to attend to by that time. Not being Mary's children, they would not have shared the bond Mary and Jesus did, especially under the circumstances of the story. So, I am going to now rewrite my Story of Mary to fit this narrative.
This version, I am taking the liberty of calling the Roman Catholic because it fits better with their doctrines as developed in the last millennium. They first decreed that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived, which most of us Christians accept. But then they went on to say she never had any more children and so remained a Perpetual Virgin. With all due respect to my fellow Christians of that persuasion, how you can have had a child and still be called a virgin escapes me, but I'm not Roman Catholic.
As with the first version of my story, I am continuing to draw on extra-canonical texts. Whether what they say is truthful, even in part, or all myth and legend, is not my primary concern. They contain elements that make the story more full if one wants to write historical fiction. Also, one has to acknowledge that their content certainly reflects the thinking of writers at the time besides those of the Gospels and Acts. Ultimately, we can learn from myth and legend too.
(This chapter is based on paragraphs 2-3 of The Protoevangelium[the First Gospel] of James)
Anna took a deep breath, then another. Finally, she could restrain herself no longer and she let out such a wail that her neighbours came running, “Oh, woe is me,” she cried, “Why has our God made me childless? What have I done to receive this judgment? And now my husband is gone and I am a widow. What shall I do? What can I do? I am alone!”
Anna’s neighbours tried to console her but it was her maidservant Judith who stopped her wailing, “How long do you humiliate your soul?” she asked, “You have been mourning for days. Where is it getting you? Look, an important feast day of the Lord is coming, and you can’t mourn then. Bathe yourself, put off your garments of mourning and dress for the feast. Perhaps your God will answer your prayers then.”
When some of her neighbours agreed that this was good advice, that Anna had nothing to lose with it, she went along with Judith’s suggestion. In fact, thinking that if God’s Spirit might see fit to indeed visit her at this time, she put on her best, her wedding garments. The final touch was a beautiful headband Judith offered her. Anna had initially protested the proposition, knowing how Judith valued it, as it had been a handmade gift. Indeed, with its attached jewels, it looked more like a tiara than a headband. Judith countered by saying that it wasn’t proper that she should wear it herself, because she was a maid-servant, and it had such a regal appearance. Anna acquiesced and Judith helped her adjust it over her head covering.
Then Anna went down to her garden and found a seat under the laurel tree. With the support she had, feeling clean after her bath, and dressed as she was, she could not help feeling better and, if she had admitted it, even a little hopeful. She raised her hands to heaven in the warm afternoon sun and prayed, “O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.”
Noticing a sparrow’s nest up in the tree as she looked up brought her back to her plight with a rush of negative thoughts again: “Alas! Who gave me birth? And what womb produced me? Because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have even driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven like this sparrow here are productive before You, O Lord. Even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. I am neither like these waters in this garden, because even these waters are productive before You, nor like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord.”
Suddenly Anna was interrupted in her lament by the sound and feel of rushing wind. A radiant figure with a cloak of shining white was before her! ‘Oh, an angel,’ Anna thought, but before she could go further the being said: “Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”
Anna fell prostate in fear before the angel and cried, “As the Lord my God lives, I make this vow if this comes to pass. If I have either a male or female child, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life.”
With that, the being vanished into the air in another rush of wind and Anna was once again alone in the quiet of her garden.
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